The Secret
by AyameRose
Summary: No one was really sure how it happened, but somehow Death the Kidd and Maka Albarn managed to hide their relationship from absolutely everyone for years. One day Soul finds out that Maka has a "secret boyfriend" and decides to find out if this guy is worthy of his meister or not. Too bad no one bothered to just ask her who he was. Kid/Maka pairing. Slight one-sided Soul/Maka


Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater or any of its affiliated characters and themes. They are the property of Atsushi Ōkubo and various publishing companies.

In hindsight the revelation probably shouldn't have been as big of a shock as it was, but somehow the two of them managed to keep their relationship a secret from everyone—even their partners—for five years. Two years of dating and no one even suspected until Soul confessed. Five years and no one knew the truth until they decided to make it public.

"Sorry Soul, but I'm already kind of in a relationship…" the sheepish and guilty look on her face had shocked him speechless as she turned around and entered their apartment. _Maka was in a relationship? Since when?_ It wasn't until later that the crushing sadness had hit, Soul assumed that was shock more than anything that had held it back. But moping and crying wasn't cool so he decided to take a slightly more active approach. He would figure out who she was dating and if the guy wasn't good enough, well then Soul would feel no shame in stealing her for himself. She was _his_ meister after all.

And so the investigation began. For the first week or so he only watched her trying to spot anything unusual in her interactions with everyone from Shibusen. It had to be someone from Shibusen, she didn't spend enough time anywhere else to get to know anyone. And everyone knew that relationships between Shibusen agents and civilians never worked out. But, to his immense frustration, she didn't seem to react differently with any of the guys at Shibusen. EAT class, NOT class; no special reactions to _anybody_. This called for a specialist.

Who among his friends knew the more about relationships than Liz? He would just have to get her alone. If Patty found out then everyone in Shibusen would know by the end of the day. If Maka had kept her relationship secret from even her weapon then he figured she had a reason. He would keep her secrets, for now.

His chance to talk to Liz didn't arrive until a couple of days later. They were all hanging out playing basketball like old times. Patty and Black*Star were yelling about something or other and Tsubaki was trying to quiet them down, Maka was reading and Kid was having one of his OCD moments about how asymmetrical a statue in the garden was. They didn't happen nearly as often anymore, but they still happened.

"Hey Liz, can I get your advice about something?"

"About what?"

"Well it's something I don't want other people to know about just yet so could you keep it cool?

"Sure, what's up?"

"Maka mentioned that she was in a relationship the other day and I can't figure out with who." He didn't bother mentioning that it had been him asking her out and getting rejected that prompted his search. Liz didn't need to know that bit. "She doesn't seem to react any special way to any of the other guys as far as I can tell. I just want to make sure he's good enough for my meister you know?"

"I get it. The relationship is probably a secret so you can't just ask right?"

Soul nodded and shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah. It didn't seem like a new thing either."

"Well I'll keep a look out but I haven't heard anything so it must really be a secret. That particular bit gossip would be all over campus if any of the girls knew about it."

"Thanks Liz. It's cool of you to help."

"No problem Soul."

But Liz couldn't seem to figure it out ether. She texted him at the end of the week saying she had no clue. She had even invited all the girls over for a slumber party. Even with all the boy-talk going around Liz still had no clues.

A month later and the pair still had absolutely no idea who Maka's mystery boyfriend was. Liz brought up the possibility of it being a girlfriend not a boyfriend but that was shot down when Soul confirmed that Maka was definitely straight. Eventually they brought in Tsubaki but she didn't know either. She did, however, recommend they talk to the absolute last person neither of them had even considered though.

Black*Star.

"Well they have been friends since they were little. It's not actually that much of a stretch to think he might know something." Was her only answer when they rejected that proposition. Black*Star was like Patty, if he knew then the entire school would know.

Another week stretched on before they gave in and asked the ninja what he thought. He was uncharacteristically serious about the whole thing. "If Maka has a boyfriend then she needs to introduce him to her god!" Evidently he didn't know anything. But this inevitably led to the rest of what used to be Spartoi, barring Maka of course, finding out that she had an unknown boyfriend. While the group had split up after the War on the Moon, their friendships had all lasted and they met up every couple months for lunch.

The reactions were fairly typical. Patty was excited and immediately started guessing who her "secret boyfriend" was. Death (no longer "the Kid") rolled his eyes and claimed that unless it affected their team somehow it wasn't his business and to stop wasting his time before going back to his paperwork. Killik was much more laid back but asked them to keep him posted. Ox and Harvar both told them that they were being idiots, though in different ways, and to focus more on their missions.

Their investigations stalled after that. Every now and then it would come up among the girls as idle speculation but Maka herself never seemed to show any outstanding level of interest in any one person. It was assumed that she had either broken up with her "secret boyfriend" or never had one in the first place. Three more years passed before any new clues were discovered, and by then it wasn't even a secret anymore.

They didn't find out who he was until the day after Maka's 18th birthday. Shinigami-sama (the Second) had thrown her a party the night before but the ex-Spartoi members had decided to have a small gathering of their own the next day. When she walked into the café they were using wearing an engagement ring all of the girls squealed before catching themselves and bombarding her with questions.

The fact that her fiancé was apparently their very own (Lord) Death shocked just about everyone. What she said next made them all speechless.

"Our parents betrothed us when I was five and Death was six because I inherited my mother's Grigori Soul which is much more compatible with a Shinigami than most other humans. We were told that we could break it off any time before I turned 18 but never saw the need to. We exchanged letters before Kid decided to attend Shibusen but his first day was actually the day we met face-to-face for the first time."

"Why did neither of you ever tell us?" the question on everyone's (their weapons in particular) minds was asked by Soul. This was his meister and his Lord, the only two people who he would ever consent to be wielded by and they hadn't even told him they were dating let alone engaged.

"Because it wasn't official and we didn't really consider it that important. It was just something that had always been the way it was. Besides, no one asked. While we didn't advertise it, neither of us would have lied if anyone asked us directly." The announcement had effectively broken the party atmosphere and the group separated to think about what they had just learned.

That night Death held his fiancé looking up at the big dark circle in the sky that used to be the moon and thought about their friend's reactions once they processed the news. Patty would probably yell at him, Liz would give him the silent treatment for _days_ , Soul would probably come and punch him. The others' reactions, while very importan,t wouldn't be as severe… these were their partners after all.

"Do you think we did the right thing, not telling them?" He buried his face in the back of Maka's neck while considering his answer.

"Yes," he eventually replied. "Will they be angry? Definitely. Would it have changed our friendships if we had told them then broken the engagement? Maybe. Will they forgive us? Definitely. It may take a while, but they will."

"Thank you, Death. I guess I'm just second guessing myself a little. But that helped."

"Always my love. Always and forever."

"Always and forever."


End file.
